Talent, considered by people in the Hollywood film industry, is considered to have two groups of people: the actors, and the directors. Just as is the case in the acting community, there is an inequality between the genders for directors as well. Unfortunately, the difference is only exacerbated at the director level.
Of the roughly 13,400 members of the Directors Guild of America only 22 percent are women, and only about 7 percent are actual women directors. The rest are people such as the directing team, the assistant directors, and unit production managers.
No woman has ever won an Academy Award for best director, and only three have ever even been nominated. These three women include: Lena Wertmuller in 1975, Jane Campion in 1993, and Sofia Coppola in 2003. There has also never been a woman winner for the top honor of the Director’s Guild, although six women have been nominated.
There is even a stigma of speech, where directors who happen to not be the majority are automatically referred to as “women directors”. The male counterparts are not called “men directors”, they are just directors.
Even positions in studios are making more progress than directors, with Sony Pictures Entertainment, DreamWorks, and Paramount having women in high rankings. It is kind of ironic, in that these powerful women have the opportunity to fund more films for women directors, and choose not to. Not-surprisingly, the three aforementioned women did not comment in the sources that I used for this blog. This choice to deny funding may be due to the fact that the majority of films lose money, and even more films are just never made. According to Soares of the Alternative Film Guide, Hollywood is targeting a young male audience and women would not be thought of as having the required touch to pull in that crowd. Studios want the safe bet, and for right now, that is going with well-known male directors, and keeping yet another aspect of sexism in Hollywood alive.
Associated Press. “Female directors remain a rarity in Hollywood.” 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20074475/.
Soares, Andre. “The Paucity of Female Directors in Hollywood.” Alternative Film Guide. 2008. http://www.altfg.com/blog/directors/female-film-directors-hollywood/.
Of the roughly 13,400 members of the Directors Guild of America only 22 percent are women, and only about 7 percent are actual women directors. The rest are people such as the directing team, the assistant directors, and unit production managers.
No woman has ever won an Academy Award for best director, and only three have ever even been nominated. These three women include: Lena Wertmuller in 1975, Jane Campion in 1993, and Sofia Coppola in 2003. There has also never been a woman winner for the top honor of the Director’s Guild, although six women have been nominated.
There is even a stigma of speech, where directors who happen to not be the majority are automatically referred to as “women directors”. The male counterparts are not called “men directors”, they are just directors.
Even positions in studios are making more progress than directors, with Sony Pictures Entertainment, DreamWorks, and Paramount having women in high rankings. It is kind of ironic, in that these powerful women have the opportunity to fund more films for women directors, and choose not to. Not-surprisingly, the three aforementioned women did not comment in the sources that I used for this blog. This choice to deny funding may be due to the fact that the majority of films lose money, and even more films are just never made. According to Soares of the Alternative Film Guide, Hollywood is targeting a young male audience and women would not be thought of as having the required touch to pull in that crowd. Studios want the safe bet, and for right now, that is going with well-known male directors, and keeping yet another aspect of sexism in Hollywood alive.
Associated Press. “Female directors remain a rarity in Hollywood.” 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20074475/.
Soares, Andre. “The Paucity of Female Directors in Hollywood.” Alternative Film Guide. 2008. http://www.altfg.com/blog/directors/female-film-directors-hollywood/.
2 comments:
this is an interesting post because ive never though about the lack of female directors in hollywood. in actuality i dont even know if there are any in hollywood. As i write this right now im trying to figure out if there are even any female directors at all, and i can only imagin how hard it would be for one to get a major deal in making a movie anywhere.
I'm shocked after reading this post and finding out about the lack of female directors. Call it ignorance or what ever but I have never thought about the gender of movie directors until now. It amazing to think that all this time with all those movies that are produced every year that almost none of them are directed by females if any of them are at all. Also to think that all the awards given to best director such as the Oscars and other like it were never given to a female director. This just blows my mind.
Chris Selix
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